POPSUGAR Celebrity

Naomi Gets Glamourous to Talk Boys and Babies

Feb 12 2008 - 1:30pm

Naomi Watts got all done up for this month's issue of Glamour [1]. On top of modeling [2] a chic Chanel number [3], she was surprisingly open about her romance with Liev and the trials of being a new mom at the age of 39. We know she's excited to give little Alexander a sibling [4], but my favorite part may be hearing how when she met her man she was the one doing the picking-up. Here's more [5]:

[5]

How she met Liev: Friends had been trying to hook us up for years, but the timing was never right. Then I ran into him at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute gala [in 2005], and we spent the whole night talking and flirting. At some point I thought, This night’s going to end and I might never see him again. So I said, in a cheeky way, “Don’t you want my digits?” I can’t tell you why; in the past, I would never have done that. If I was even remotely interested in a guy, I would ask for his number first. That way, I could find out more about him on my terms. Literally, within seconds after [Liev] left, he texted me his number. I think he liked that I was a bit aggressive.

On working around her family: So far, we’ve been quite lucky: We’re coming up on three years together and we’ve only spent three weeks apart at the most. All throughout the pregnancy, Liev was here doing a play, and once the baby was born, we all went to Lithuania while he filmed Defiance.

To see what Naomi says about being an older mom, aging gracefully, and how to get what you want in life just

On becoming a mother at a later age: Well, for one thing, picking him up off of the ground 20 times is different when you hear your knees cracking! [Laughs.] Having a child later in life is interesting. From an intellectual point of view, you’ve had a lot of time to do research and figure out how you want to raise him. But there is also something to be said about having a child in your early twenties, when you’re just operating on instinct. My mother had my brother and me when she was 19 and 20. Obviously we’re the best things that happened to her, but she had plans and dreams she never got to fulfill. So I don’t have that feeling of, what am I giving up?

On getting what you want in life: My personal belief is that you can’t want it too badly—and I mean that for everything in life. In my early years of auditioning, I wanted [success] so badly, I ended up pushing it away. You can make people feel uncomfortable if you give off an air of desperation. I’ve got female friends who are great catches: They look great and they have successful careers. Men should be rugby-tackling them to the ground! But it can be hard for a woman in her late thirties, because men tend to think she wants a baby right away. At the same time, there are great men out there who are really impressed by a woman who knows what she wants. And that’s what I found.

On aging gracefully: I’d better start thinking about it. From what I’ve heard, everyone feels fine in their thirties, even to age 39, and then that day comes, and it’s like, bam! I do get surprised when I catch myself in mirrors: It’s like, God, my face is really that of a 39-year-old’s! But I hope to age gracefully.

I love how refreshingly frank she seems. And while it's probably not such a challenge to age gracefully when you look like Naomi, it seems like her new role as a mom will suit her for a while to come.